The Sheila Variations

I never walk out. I mean, I've got a large popcorn and Reese's Pieces -- I can sit for an hour and a half and veg.

My parents, though, are HUGE walker-outers. My mom refuses to watch anything "weird" (don't ask me to clarify what she considers weird, it can't be done) especially if there's sex involved. They've walked out of Roger Rabbit and American Beauty, and recently they walked out of Little Miss Sunshine.

(My dad wouldn't be so much of a walker-outer if it wasn't for my mom. He would just as soon take a nap.)

i walked out on 'independence day'. i saw it in college and we went with a group of people adn the theatre was packed. i just...was hating every second of it. HATING IT. there was one point where this alien like POPS out at you and scares the bejeezus otu of you and i got SO ANGRY, I stood up, yelled, "F*CK THIS!" and walked out. my friends still laugh about this. the best part was that i didn't drive to the theatre, so i just had to sit on the hood of a car until the movie finished, in the mall parking lot. i guess it was my penance.

siobhan - hahahahahahaha You stormed out and then had to WAIT!!

I haven't walked out on any movie that I can recall, though I came awfully close during Punch Drunk Love.

The other day you talked about your hatred of Forrest Gump. I've been thinking about it since then, wondering how anyone could hate that movie. But then I realized the real reason I love it is because I identify so strongly with Jenny, with her horrible childhood, her floundering, her misdirection. I just loved her.

What I hated is the idea that you can get ahead in America by being stupid and that there is some kind of moral superiority about being stupid.

But to this day, Forrest Gump brings me to tears.

And, naturally, I believe that Punch Drunk Love is one of the most overlooked films in the last 10 years. hahahaha

It's all just a matter of taste!!

However: the great-ness of Cary Grant is, frankly, NOT up for debate. I have to draw the line somewhere.

Siobhan is now my BFF. From my knowledge, she and I are the only two people who actively hate Independence Day.

hahahahaha

I can't get the image of Siobhan sitting in the mall parking lot, fuming, out of my mind.

Oh, and my husband's friend is named Forrest. Let me tell you, "Run, Forrest, run!" never. gets. old.

Truly.

hunter and niki's impression of me doing this is better than the actual memory. b/c they were like, startled twice. first by the alien on screen, then by their best friend shouting in a crowded movie theatre and walking out of the theatre. so very funny.

hahahaha I can so see that, siobhan!

I'm a pretty regular walker-outer. Not that I've done it often, but I'm always prepared to. Takes me a while, I set a deadline. "If this movie doesn't get any better in the next 15 minutes I'm outta here." Life's too short to waste watching a bad movie.

I've only walked out of maybe 6 movies, but the only ones I remember offhand are Titus and Final Fantasy.

Please tell me, what did you see in Punch Drunk Love?

Siobhan, I agree: I detest Independence Day. I saw it on DVD and left the house - so maybe that counts as walking out?

I'm feeling very vindicated right now.

RTG - I can't explain it - I don't know anyone else who really loved that movie like I did ... I just was so in love with it - I've seen it probably 8 or 9 times - I loved its picture of damaged souls and fragile warped hope (symbolized by the random pianola that showed up on the sidewalk) ... I loved Adam Sandler in it, I was completely inside his agony - the whole family dynamic thing - being emasculated and dominated by those sisters ... and I loved how fixated he got on certain things. The pudding, the girl ... I felt revealed by that movie. I felt like: when I fall in love, it will be like that. And I NEVER feel like that when I go to the movies. I almost never recognize myself, or recognize my own brand of psychological damage. I mentioned Living Out Loud in another post - that was another one. I felt as though the filmmaker had freakin' read my diaries or something.

I NEVER walk out, but - oddly enough only two days ago - I was FORCED to walk out of "The Last Kiss". Watching Zach Braff and Blythe Danner struggle to make something of horrible unrealistic dialog was awful. Then there was the feeling vertigo from a film that hops between wanting to be a moody indie rumination on relationships and a cheezy low-brow comedy. I will usually stay through ANYTHING. I couldn't do it. I finally gave up when Harold Ramis half-heartedly attempts to stop an emotional Bythe Danner from running off and as he calls to her to "wait", this completely ill timed expression crosses his face as if he just cannot beleive he is bothering to say these lines...

I had to leave. As I climbed over the chortling frat boy blocking the end of my row, I wanted to tell the actors in the film that I wished I could take them with me. With one or two exceptions, they were far too good for that material.

//as if he just cannot beleive he is bothering to say these lines...//

hahahahaha Oh no!! That movie has been getting some really scathing reviews - ouch.

Well, of course Siobhan and RTG (and my wife) hated Independence Day; they're chicks! Now, if thier husbands hated it, it'd be a different story...

Seriously, though, I enjoy these discussions about movies... it amazes me that people can be so similar and yet so different in tastes at the same time.

Dude, I'm a chick and I liked Independence Day.

You know - I think I WANTED to walk out of Mannequin. But ... why? Was it a bad movie? I mean, of course it was bad- but that bad???? I remember I was seeing it at the Pier Cinema in Narragansett and it felt like the longest movie ever made.

I don't think I've seen it since ... even though I love Kim Cattrall.

Jefferson Starship!!

That's what I meant with my tongue-in-cheek response, Sheila... So many want to group people into neat little groups: men vs. women, one race vs. another race, conservative vs. liberal, north vs south, urban vs. rural; as if we can assume what a person will like or dislike based on environmental and genetic factors...

BTW, the two movies I ever walked out on were:

Americathon - this had to be the nadir of American comedy (I'm pretty sure 3's Company was the number 1 comedy this year also)

Serpent and the Rainbow - Went to be scared... left bored 35 minutes later.

Aha. Tongue in cheek. Got it!!

I have never even HEARD of Americathon. What the hell is it???

Mannequin had a lot going for it: interesting premise, Cattrall, McCarthy and Spader... but had two major weaknesses:

Horrible script and G.W. Bailey (I'm not saying he's a bad actor, but he's just never been funny to me)

Americathon

Imagine a low brow comedy so bad that six drunk 17 and 18 year olds would walk out on... In fact, they had to stop the movie next door to chase us and a bunch of other people who had moved to the other feature out (Apparently, they had done this on previous occasions)...

Wow. That's bad.

Now I'm totally curious about it.

Meat Loaf is in it. hahahahaha

So is Elvis Costello

Genius. Fred Willard!!

I remember watching Mannequin when it came on Sunday afternoon television and constantly leaning back to look down my hallway to make sure my roomate was not going to CATCH me watching Mannequin. For me it fit into a completely different category - awful but still somehow so freakishly compelling so that I could not possibly stop watching it.

hahahahahahahahahahaha

loved Punch Drunk Love ..a lot...beautiful and sad...but i have only walked out on three movies...all Terry Gilliam..i KNOW..sacrelige!!...i loved Brazil and The Fisher King but Baron Munchausen/Time Bandits/Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas gave me a headache in the first half hour and I went screaming into the night..he needs to chill out!

You walked out on 3 Terry Gilliam movies. hahahaha I didn't know that!!

I still need to write my damn Fisher King Appreciation Post one of these days. I love that movie.

also..i couldnt get thru Baz Luhrmann's Romeo and Juliet..cool concept..interesting cast...i had rented it...never got thru it!

Fisher King is great..but i must admit it was a close call..i almost didnt make it thru..but i stuck with taht one..the other ones literally made my brain bleed!

It was the Jeff/Mercedes relationship that really clinched it for me. Jeff reminds me sooooo much of Miles in that movie.

But yeah, I know what you mean - about the headache factor.

im all for inventive camera work..but sheesh..i get nauseous at whack-a-mole..never mind Gilliam's crazy camera moves!!! he has a new one coming out..i keep going just in case its another
Brazil..ya know..also Hedwig is the midnight movie at the Music Box..i soooo wish u were here!!!

How 'bout his new one coming out, mitchell? (John Cameron Mitchell's new movie, I mean) It sounds insane and kinda gross, but I need to see it. Uhm, yes. I said NEED.

I wish I were there too. :(

im all about Shortbus!!!!..go to youtube and watch the uncensored trailer..it looks amazing..and really beautiful

I can't wait - it opens here next week. Huge article in the NY Times about it. I'll go to Youtube later tonight after Hamilton.

I sat thru LOVE & DEATH ON LONG ISLAND because I was SURE that, beginning with the Next Scene, it had to improve. As the final credits rolled, the ONLY thing I can remember about the film was "It got worse" and "I can't believe I stayed there". But I remember it's name well enough to avoid it forever and ever.

I can remember one that I walked out on back when I was in college. I forget the name of it but it starred Steve Cochrane and Adele Mara. She played a sexpot in a bikini and when they photographed her from the back you could see the varicose veins. Everyone in the film was telegraphing in their lines. It was all about crop dusters. Has to be the worst movie ever made.

Some of Woody Allen's films just plain put me to sleep. Anytime he is the male love interest I doze off. I guess I just get so tired of all that angst he gets off on and that voice is like fingernails on the blackboard.

The other one I can't stand is anything with your good buddy Renee Z in it. I just can't stand her. I keep thinking of all the good actresses who could and should have had those roles.

Well - I have to re-think my opinion on Renee Z since my cousin has been cast, a nice big juicy part, in a new Renee movie - they are filming it right now. Not only will I go to see that movie - but I will re-evaluate Miss Z, seeing as she was in close proximity to my cousin and is apparently really nice.

That sound you hear is the world spinning off its axis.

That's show biz, baby. :)